This is the fourth volume in the Chronicles of Amber series. It is a continuation of this series, a most
fascinating and
well-written group of books. Amber is the name of the world nearest to the perfect pattern of Order, and is opposed to (and often endangered by the inhabitants of) the Courts of Chaos. In this book, King Oberon has disappeared and left no clear line of
succession -- so the rest of the family has been involved in various connivances and manipulations, amounting at times to outright civil war. But a worse problem has arisen. A great black blot has arisen on the Pattern itself, and hence on reality and in the Shadows, which are like and yet unlike each other, changing as one moves on HELLRIDESS, where everything changes in unbelievable ways as one rides through Shadow to various worlds, each different, yet similar, to the others and their source. It turns out thta one of the brothers sons has been wounded as he walked the Pattern. That blood has caused the blot. But how to fix it? a gem holds the key -- one of the brothers has gone mad, apparently, and wishes to destroy EVERYTHING, hoping to be able to use the jewel to recreate the world/s in his own image, and anew. The story is
fascinating. An initial reprise of
previous action is a bit slow, but well worth reading. This is a great book in an excellent series.